


A Thousand Lights

by yourfriendblossom



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: All Swearing is Either Cut Off Or In German (Going Back To Our Roots - Pun Not Intended), BAMF Maximus (Disney), Canon Temporary Character Death, Canonical Child Abuse, Cassandra is Bad at Feelings (Disney: Tangled), Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Fictional Religion & Theology, Gen, Multi-Chapter Fic; Take 2 (XD), Near Death Experiences, No Really I Didn't Intend For That To Happen - I HATE Puns, Nonverbal Communication, Protective Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider, Rapunzel (Disney) Deserves Nice Things, Rapunzel Gets a Hug (Disney), Rapunzel Needs a Hug (Disney), Rapunzel is a Precious Bean (Disney), References To Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), title may change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26868100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourfriendblossom/pseuds/yourfriendblossom
Summary: Bascally, what if the movie took place eight years earlier?I'm gonna focus on the feels rather than the plot in this fic because everyone already knows how most of it's gonna go besides some minor changes due to the characters' different ages, so that would get really old really fast.Or:I ship platonic Smol!Eugenzel for seventeen chapters straight while doing my best to avoid just writing out the movie.Trigger Warnings:Emotional/Psychological Child Abuse/NeglectSerious/Mortal Injury.Near Death Experience.Things That Are (Apparently) The Other Kind Of Triggering For Some People:Animals Having Thoughts & Feelings, & Communicating.Girl "Choosing" A Guy Over Her "Family".You're welcome to post your opinion on anything to do with the fic as long as you do it respectfully and with others' feelings in mind. X).Title may change as the current one is terrible, suggestions in the comments are welcomed and greatly appreciated. :).
Relationships: Cassandra & Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Rapunzel, Maximus & Pascal & Rapunzel (Disney), Queen Arianna of Corona/King Frederic of Corona (Disney)
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a few explanations before I get started.

First off: Age of the characters:  
Rapunzel is nine for the first part and ten for the rest.  
Eugene is sixteen. (But he thinks he's fifteen). This is post-No Time Like The Past and that flashback in The Return of Strongbow, so I'm just gonna assume Eugene and Lance's appearance was a mistake. (My heart is wrenching in two at assuming such an error of my beloved animation studio. I'm so sorry Disney, but I need this for my headcanon!)  
Cassandra is roughly fourteen.  
Pascal would be about two years old, so an adult chameleon.  
I've calculated Maximus would be (roughly) two or three years old, so just a bit smaller and skinnier than his adult size, according to my (admittedly not not particularly extensive) research on horse growth and developement.  
The Captain (or as I'll be calling him, Hermann Rodger Wintergreen), Frederic, and Arianna would (probably) be in their late-thirties to mid-forties. 

All relationships except Frederic X Arianna (Ariedric? Fredianna? X,D) are platonic. No sir, ain't no underage in my fanfics!  
Lance and Varian won't be in this, unfortunately, as one of them is in prison and the other is like six years old, besides having their own introductions and character arcs in the series that I don't want to screw with. Also, I'm already adding Cass into the mix, and even when you only add one character, it still tends to make the flow of events clunkier unless you change them, so Gosh forbid I add in three.

I'll take it for granted that Pascal is a Veiled Chameleon.

I've done the math, and estimated that Rapunzel's hair grows about thirty centimeters a month, or about thirty times as fast as the average Caucasian (white) female.

As we see in the series and movies, Raps can easile lift a fully grown, taller than 6'2 woman (because Gothel is taller than Eugene) not to mention hold a huge metal and wood shaft (Damanitus Chamber, Casszandra's Revenge) that, quite literally, probably weighs a ton, so she would have no problem with her hair, weighing in at an estimated 4.2 kilograms (10.4 pounds) at the time of the movie. 

Don't expect regular updates as the device all my drafts are stored on is dead with no hope of revival, except with borrowed cords until further notice.


	2. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter published 9/10/2020.

"This; is the story of how I died," an overly dramatic voice announced.  
"You didn't _die_ , silly." Rapunzel was seated cross-legged on the bed, hands in her lap, chameleon perched on her shoulder. After wishing her parents good night, she had puppy-eyed Eugene into giving her a bedtime story, as she insisted he always told the best stories. And in her opinion, he did. He did his best impression of every character's voice, and made wide sweeping gestures with his hands, leaping around the room as he acted out action sequences.  
"I'll have you know I did. Met my guardian angel and everything!"  
"Sure ya did, Fitzherbert." The girl leaning back in a chair at the foot of the bed interjected.  
"Hey, Im telling the story, Cass-Sandra!"  
Cass huffed.   
"Now, don't be alarmed-"   
"I'm not alarmed, I was there, don't you remember?"  
"I know, but Cass-SAndra wasn't for most of-"  
"Since when do you care about me, Fitzherjerk?"  
"I don't, but Sunshine does-"  
"Yeah-"  
"Look, the point is, can you just can it for five minutes?"  
A huff and an eye roll, then silence.  
". . .Good. Now, as I was saying, don't be alarmed, this is actually a very fun story, and, the truth is, it isn't even mine-"  
"Of course it's not yours, dingus, why would we be sitting around listening to you if the story wasn't worth slogging through?"  
"Shut up, Cass."  
"Guys?"  
Cassandra shook her head  
"-Tsk tsk, using such language in front of the young Princess. And here we were, thinking you were all chivalrous and reformed now."  
"This is Raps we're talking about, it's not like she'd ever say something like that in the first place-"  
They were right up in each other's faces now, noses almost touching.  
Rapunzel pushed herself up on her knees.  
"Guys-?!"  
"-It's the principle, dipstick-!"  
"Stop acting all "holier-than-thou" and say dipshi-"  
Frustrated, she stood.  
"GUYS!"  
The two older children paused their bickering and turned, looking surprised. Rapunzel had stood up on the bed during her attempts to be noticed, and stood with her hands clenched by her sides, Pascal sitting atop her head, glaring at them.  
"I wanna hear the rest of the story."  
The two rivals realised they'd upset her, and sent one last glare each other's way before stepping back. When Raps got upset, you knew you'd gone too far. Cassandra plopped back down into her seat, and Eugene clambered up one of the walls...  
"This; is the story of a girl. And it starts..."  
... to gesture at a painting of the sun in classic Coronan fashion on the canopy above the bed.  
"...With the sun."  
"A long time ago, in a place not so far from where we are now, a single drop of sunlight fell from the heavens, and from this, small drop of sun, grew a magic, golden, flower. This flower had the power to heal the sick and injured." Eugene climbed from beam to beam, gesturing to each part of the story as he went. When he came to the flower, he explained it's power. Eugene suddenly paused, noticing a new part of the picture.  
"You see that old woman over there? Remember her. She's kind of important."  
"Now, a hop, skip and a boat ride away, there grew a kingdom, ruled by a beloved King and Queen-"  
"Mommy and Daddy!"  
"-yep, and the Queen, well, she was about to have a baby. And she got sick... _Really,_ sick. Sick enough to die if something wasn't done, even. It's times like these that people start to look for a miracle. Or, in this case...a magic golden flower."  
He came back to the part with the old woman, and pointed to the previously unnoticed golden bloom which she loomed over.  
"Ah, see? I told you she would be important."  
"You see, Gothel used the Sundrop Flower to keep herself young and beautiful way past the time she should have been dust in the ground. And to do this, all she had to do was sing a special song."  
A familiar tune srarted being hummed.  
_Flower, gleam and glow,_  
_Let your power shine,_  
_Make the clock reverse,_  
_Bring back what once was mine..._  
"However, the Guards discovered her secret, and uprooted the flower to bring it to their King so that he might brew a tea from its petals and serve it to his wife, who lay on her deathbed with his unborn child inside her."  
"The magic of the golden flower healed the queen, and soon a healthy baby girl, a princess, was born, with beautiful golden hair. And for a moment, everything was perfect."  
Eugene let that sink in.  
"...And then that moment ended."  
Rapunzel leaned forward and clutched a pillow to her chest in enrapturment  
"Gothel broke into the castle, stole the child, and just like that -"  
-He snapped his fingers in front of her nose-  
"-Gone!" "The kingdom searched and searched, but they could not find their precious heir and Princess. Meanwhile, in a tower hidden away from the rest of the world, Gothel raised the child as her own.  
Cassandra and Max shifted. Eugene was the only one old enough to have remembered the event at all, let alone clearly. "But, each year on her birthday, the King and Queen released thousands of lanterns into the sky in the hope that one day, their lost princess...would return."


End file.
